Greece’s Tourism Ministry sealed the last two floors and the roof-bar on the top of the Coco-Mat hotel in central Athens last Friday. The sealing comes in implementation of the ruling of the Council of State that was issued in 2019 and implemented end of March 2024, after the Court of Appeals rejected the suspension request submitted by the owner company.
The hotel that had been declared illegal for exceeding the height of 24 meters and for hiding the view to the Acropolis, as residents of Makriyianni/Koukaki area had complained and brought the case to courts.
The hotel case characteristically illustrates how bureaucracy in Greece and courts operating in turtle’s speed delay implementation of important decisions.
The Tourism Ministry announced the cease of operations for the Coco-Mat Hotel in July 2023, citing the owner’s reluctance to not complied with the state decisions to bring down the two upper floors for they hide view to the Acropolis. The building’s permit has been partially revoked.
In spring 2020 and the Central Archaeological Council (CAS) has decided that the multi-storey hotel at the foot of the Acropolis will have to demolish two of its upper floors as they hinder the view to the monument.
The demolition of the illegal part of the building has been undertaken by the Decentralized Administration of Attica, which will not have much time to put out a tender for its execution by May, as requested by the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, noted daily kathimerini on Thursday.
The floors were sealed in adherence to a decision of the Council of State issued in 2019. The implementation of the decision has already been long delayed for several reasons: on the one hand, the technical complexity of the operation which entails removing a portion of a functional building without affecting the structural integrity of the rest of it; on the other hand, the reluctance or slow response of public services, and the number of legal actions taken by the owner company, Blue Cedar, to try to prevent the decision.
The sealing will remain in force until the decisions on the suspension applications, which were heard by the Court of Appeal in mid-March, are issued in mid-April.
“In the next few days we will sign a programmatic contract with ΤΕΕ (the Technical Chamber of Greece) which will be our technical adviser on the project,” said the head of the Decentralized Administration of Attica, Grigoris Zarifopoulos.
“The TEE will help our services with its specialized staff to draft the tender documents for the study that will determine the demolition method. The study will be put out to tender by May. Once the study has been completed, a second call for tenders will be launched to carry out the demolition,” he added.
